Fleet Management

November Commercial Vehicle Net Orders Weaker than Expected

December 6, 2011
• by Staff

North America Class 8 commercial vehicle preliminary net orders for November surprised on the downside, coming in well below October actuals.

According to ACT Research Co. the final numbers, which will be released mid-December, will approach 20,700 units for heavy duty Class 8 trucks and 13,400 for medium Classes 5-7 vehicles. The preliminary net order numbers are typically accurate to within 5% of actual.

"We believe there was a pull-forward of demand in October to counteract the impact of price increases for the new model year," said Steve Tam, ACT vice president-commercial vehicle sector. "The underlying fundamentals in the heavy truck market remain healthy. Classes 5-7 preliminary net orders continue to flow in a very narrow band. As a case in point, when seasonally adjusted and annualized, the Classes 5-7 net order matched the YTD average."

A first look at the nation’s manufacturing for this month shows business conditions improved just a little from the previous month, remaining strong, while a separate report showed that although new homes sales fell last month, they posted a double-digit gain compared to a year ago.

Truckinginfo.com, the website of Heavy Duty Trucking, has been redesigned from the ground up, offering fleet users a cleaner, more organized design that optimizes content for desktop or mobile devices and provides a more secure browsing experience.

Workhorse Group is conducting autonomous drone package deliveries in real-world scenarios for homes in the Cincinnati, Ohio, area, using a system that is integrated with its line of electric delivery trucks.

The second Heavy Duty Trucking Exchange was another successful event, bringing together fleets and suppliers for two days of networking, one-on-one meetings, and educational panels at the Scottsdale resort at McCormick Ranch outside Phoenix, Arizona.